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Bulgaria Economy
Bulgaria Economic Climate Sofia Plovdiv
Bulgaria Economic Climate
The Bulgarian economy continued its painful adjustment
in 1994 from the misdirected development undertaken during four decades of
Communist rule. Many aspects of a market economy have been put in place and
have begun to function, but much of the economy, especially the industrial
sector, has yet to re-establish market links lost with the collapse of the
other centrally planned Soviet Bloc economies. The prices of many imported
industrial inputs, especially energy products, have risen markedly, and
falling real wages have not sufficed to restore competitiveness. The
government plans more extensive privatization in 1995 to improve the
management of enterprises and to encourage foreign investment. Bulgaria
resumed payments on its $10 billion in commercial debt in 1993 following the
negotiation of a 50% write-off.
GDP - purchasing power parity - $33.7 billion (1994
est.)
- National product real growth rate:
- National product per capita:
- Inflation rate (consumer prices):
$17.4 billion, including capital expenditures of $610
million (1993 est.)
$3.6 billion (f.o.b., 1993)
machinery and equipment 30.6%; agricultural products
24%; manufactured consumer goods 22.2%; fuels, minerals, raw materials, and
metals 10.5%; other 12.7% (1991)
former CEMA countries 57.7% (FSU 48.6%, Poland 2.1%,
Czechoslovakia 0.9%); developed countries 26.3% (Germany 4.8%, Greece 2.2%);
less developed countries 15.9% (Libya 2.1%, Iran 0.7%) (1991)
$4.3 billion (c.i.f., 1993)
fuels, minerals, and raw materials 58.7%; machinery
and equipment 15.8%; manufactured consumer goods 4.4%; agricultural products
15.2%; other 5.9%
former CEMA countries 51.0% (FSU 43.2%, Poland 3.7%);
developed countries 32.8% (Germany 7.0%, Austria 4.7%); less developed
countries 16.2% (Iran 2.8%, Libya 2.5%)
growth rate 4% (1994); accounts for about 37% of GDP
(1990)
- Electricity:
machine building and metal working, food processing,
chemicals, textiles, building materials, ferrous and nonferrous metals
climate and soil conditions support livestock raising
and the growing of various grain crops, oilseeds, vegetables, fruits, and
tobacco; more than one-third of the arable land devoted to grain; world's
fourth-largest tobacco exporter; surplus food producer
transshipment point for southwest Asian heroin and South
American cocaine transiting the Balkan route; limited producer of precursor
chemicals
$700 million in balance of payments support (1994)
1 lev (Lv) = 100 stotinki
- Exchange rates:
leva (Lv) per US$1 - 67.04 (January 1995), 32.00
(January 1994), 24.56 (January 1993), 17.18 (January 1992), 16.13 (March
1991), 0.7446 (November 1990); note - floating exchange rate since February
1991
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Bulgarian and Italian transport officials met Monday in the Italian port of Brindisi in order to reactivate the project for the Pan-European Transport Corridor No. 8. The Bulgarian delegation included the Deputy Transport Minister Daniela Nikiforova, the CEO of the Port of Varna Danail Papazov, th... | Workers of Bulgaria's Military Factory VMZ Sopot Stage Warning Strike
About 800 workers from one of Bulgaria's largest military factories, VMZ, which is located in the central Bulgarain town of Sopot, held Monday morning a warning strike. The effective strike started at 8 a.m. and lasted for about half an hour. It is set to continue with an on-site strike between 11... | Bulgaria's Auto Carriers Put off Planned Protests over Diesel Prices
The Association of the Auto Transport Organizations is putting off the protests that it had planned for Monday, November 17, because of the unfair diesel prices in Bulgaria compared to the rest of the EU. The news was announced Monday morning by the Chair of the Association Krasimir Lalov in an in... |
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